Chapter 19: Chapter XVIII – Venti – Blind and Confused

Venti was never a big fan of the city. It was always so noisy and it made it hard to focus and just move throughout the city. They felt that more than most, but they had never quite adjusted. They always liked the countryside much better, back where their parents lived. However, they also wanted to ensure they were pulling their weight with the shop, instead of just sitting around and doing nothing all day. Their fathers had always insisted that they would understand if Venti didn’t want to help with the shop, but they had always been rather adamant about doing so.

The other thing that Venti didn’t like about the city was how incredibly packed it was. They were never really a people person, but they especially weren’t a person who enjoyed crowd, especially in the magnitude of such a big city. Most of the people roaming around were tourists, here to visit the magnificence of Aeria’s floating islands. Venti had definitely been a little enamored with them when they were younger, but now the luster was fully lost. They always thought it would be more proper for people to want to visit to try and visit the Palace of Strataros which was truly remarkable.

Even still, they were in the city now and they had promised to help with getting what their needed for their most recent project and they had every intention of following through with that. The only issue, at the moment, was that they had forgotten exactly where the specific shop was. Initially, when they entered the city, they were simply roaming around for a bit. They had stopped at a shop to get some lunch and then headed back out, but by then, they were thoroughly lost as to where to go.

Running a hand down their robe, Venti sighed. Another point against large cities, their clothes often got dirty. At the moment, Venti was wearing their usual light green robe which had black metal accent bands running along it horizontally. It went all the way down to their knees and underneath they were just wearing a pair of black shorts and a binder of the same color. Their long green and teal hair was tied back in to a low ponytail using a metal clip that one of their fathers had forged for them. At their side, there was a sheathed sword in a black blade that was about four feet long. Venti was relatively average in size, but because they wore a robe all the time, people often believed they were much bigger.

As Venti continued walking along, they were attempting to pat down the stains where they felt them. Unfortunately, they weren’t quite paying attention and they ended up running directly in to someone who was also not paying attention. The two fell backwards, causing Venti’s sheathed sword to clatter to the ground. The sword was sealed inside that it would stay quite secure, but still be able to be removed easily, so as to not cause injury or alarm when something like this happened.

Once they retrieved their sword, Venti leaned down and offered the young woman they had knocked over a hand. “Here… let me help you up…” Venti spoke very clearly, but their voice was rather soft and androgynous. They had heard it described as rather calming at times by certain individuals, but they weren’t terribly certain about that.

After collecting her things that had fallen out of a satchel at her side, the woman took Venti’s hand, getting back on her feet and looking to Venti nervously. “O-Oh my… I-I’m so sorry I d-didn’t mean to… I was so…” the woman trailed off as she noticed Venti’s eyes and her expression turned to sheer mortification. “Oh my gosh! I’m s-so sorry… I should have… you uhm w-well… do you need help…?” she stammered out.

Venti chuckled softly and shook their head, turning to face the woman and smiling. “I assure you, I am perfectly fine.” Venti was used to this kind of reaction from people. Even in such a magical world, blindness was still rather uncommon and so, people often didn’t know how to react or even what to do, but Venti knew they always had the best intentions, even if they stumbled over themselves often.

The woman bowed in apology to Venti before looking back at them, somewhat unable to draw her gaze away from the glazed over greyish-green eyes. “Right… I u-uhm… I’d uh… better get going…” the woman offered before running off.

Venti sighed softly, standing still for a bit. They were really tired of walking around aimlessly, so they instead decided on a better alternative for finding their destination. Venti turned upwards towards the building they were next to, a seal forming on the back of their hand as they leapt in to the air, light green lightning streaking behind them as they ascended towards the top of the building, eventually landing on top of it. They took a seat on the ledge and looked out across the city, setting their sword down next to them.

Despite their blindless, Venti was still quite familiar with their surroundings. Even if they couldn’t see it, they were able to know the forms of everything. Usually, when they were on the street, to conserve energy, they would use their sword to get their bearings. However, when they needed a better idea of things, they had designed a passive method of “seeing” the world around them. They had heard it compared to echo location used by some creatures with poor eyesight, but it was a little different.

Venti’s hearing wasn’t anything special, but their spatial understanding was rather well developed, so they would simply throw out million of tiny bit of essence from their aura and track how far away they would hit something. Once they did this once, they would almost always remember it with near perfection detail. Sometimes they would have to sort of refresh and scatter essence once more or if they were walking around the city and trying to get their bearings more effectively, they would go somewhere central or high up and get a sense of the city from there.

Thankfully, the city was laid out in a rather simple fashion. There was a massive town hall in the center of the city and everything was radiating out from that with eight main streets going out from it in each direction. Most of the buildings in the city were several hundred feet tall, extending high in to the sky, as was common for wind apprentice architecture. Most of the buildings were light green or white with golden bands jutting out where stories of the buildings were divided. Usually, there were lanterns hanging from the dividers, illuminating the outsides of windows even at night time.

Most of the mortals would likely have felt like the cities were just like the ones they had lost until you noticed all the little bits of magic dotted all around. Street signs and lights were made of light constructs that would shift as needed with a pole underneath them usually to contain the seal and the essence supply needed to maintain it. That was common for most bits of infrastructure, making it clear that this world was full of magic. Venti always loved the way the cities looked, seeing the influence of mortals and apprentices on one another. Even the greater abundance of cities and such was a direct influence of the mortals, seeing as how unstructured the vast majority of the world of essence used to be. It had been a long road, but now they truly were part of a united world.

While they simply loved the look of the city, Venti was quickly greeted by their absolute favorite part, the airships that occupied the sky. They were all over and sometimes, they would allow Venti to sit atop them and ride the wind, even without flying, something Venti wasn’t the most adept with. Each airship served a unique purpose. Some house local law enforcement operatives watching over the city, some were transporting goods and people, while others housed the Grand Omnian Military.

When the airship finally passed by, Venti was met with a strange sight. At the moment, they were extending their essence all around, ensuring that they were able to be aware of their surroundings as best as possible, in the event an airship or enforcement officer happened to come their way. However, on the other side of the rather large street, standing atop a building and looking out on the city, Venti was met with another individual. From this distance, it was hard to make out details without expending a large amount of essence, so they stood up and waved slightly at the individual. However, even without being closer, Venti could feel something strange about this person. Their body was radiating a very strange kind of energy that they were certain they had felt before, but they couldn’t quite put their finger on it.

The individual on the other building didn’t wave back, seemingly not even taking notice of them, so Venti decided to fly over to the other building to greet them. Making sure they had the layout of the city good before jumping, they took a deep breath, grabbing their sword and forming a seal on their hand, leaping off the building and flying over to the one where the individual was, lightning streaking behind them.

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Once they landed on the building, they once again dispersed essence, only to find that the person had already disappeared while Venti was flying over. Venti sighed and moved back over to the ledge, trying to spot the person, but they were gone now. They realized it would likely be best for them to get back to their errand, seeing as they had left almost three hours ago now.

Dropping down from the roof, creating a small air cushion to slow their fall, Venti stopped. Taking their sword from their side and using it to begin tapping along, they eventually bumped in to someone lightly, giving them an opportunity to ask where the shop they were going to was in relation to them currently. Thankfully, they were able to help and with that, Venti disperse their essence, creating a mental map of their route. Following it closely, after about 15 minutes of walking, they arrived at their location.

The shop was located on the further edge of the city, something Venti was grateful for, giving them a bit of a break from the immense noise level of the more populated areas of the city. The shop was also much smaller than many of the shops in the inner city. Despite this, Venti was confident in the quality as were their parents.

Stepping in to the shop, Venti was greeted with a, “Howdy there, welcome to the-” before the person behind the counter of the shop realized who was there. “Venti! I was wonderin’ when you would be stoppin’ by. How are ya?” The southern accented voice was coming from a young woman behind the counter. Venti was very familiar with her, seeing as how she was the daughter of the man who started the shop, an old friend of Venti’s parents from when they were all in the military.

“I’m doing well, Erika. How about you? How’s your dad?” Venti asked as they walked up to the counter, making sure not to bump in to anything on their way.

“He’s doin’ great! He’s out at the moment, but he wishes you and your dads the very best!” Erika replied happily, stepping out from behind the counter and moving over to one of the side doors leading out of the shop.

Venti followed Erika’s lead, stepping back outside and around to the back of the shop. The back of the shop was always cluttered with the more large-scale orders that the shop received and, in this case, that was Venti’s fathers. Once in the back of the shop, Erika tapped a large bit of metal, giving Venti a reference point which they followed over to.

“Your dads’re makin’ somethin’ pretty big, huh?” Erika asked.

Venti nodded as they began to feel around the large cart that was currently housing several hundred pounds of metal. Venti marked each corner of the cart with a small seal before stepping back.

“Your dad already paid for it, so you’re good to go whenever you’re ready. Just remember to bring the cart back, alright?” Erika added.

Venti nodded and stepped back, holding up both of their hands, a seal forming in front of them which reacted with the ones placed around the cart, forming a chain which quickly turned in to a rift. Once the rift fully formed, the cart of metal disappeared in to it and the rift closed up. Venti’s seal disappeared and they turned to Erika, giving a soft smile. “Thanks, Erika.”

“Anytime! I’ll see you next time! And hey, don’t be afraid to message from time to time, ya shut in…” she joked, nudging Venti as she made her way in to the shop.

Venti nodded and waved goodbye before turning back to the road. They were about to disperse essence to get their bearings, but then they were suddenly knocked over. Falling to the ground for the second time today, Venti groaned slightly. They began to continuously disperse essence in a very small area, just enough to cover the other individual as they made their way to their feet.

Looking to the individual, Venti was able to make out a feminine form. The person seemed to be wearing a loose and somewhat casual outfit. At their side was a satchel and sprouting from the back of their head, Venti could feel a pair of horns, almost like a ram. They had rather long hair that went down to just around the small of their back. The hair seemed to emit strange energy. As Venti continued to examine them, they noticed a strange, but familiar feeling. This person had the same strange energy as the person they had felt on the roof in the city, the one who had disappeared.

“Oh, it’s you.”

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